Saturday, July 27, 2013

JD vs Leadville : Here We Go Again

I thought I’d give you proof of life, three weeks before the
race.

A few weeks ago, I ran the Creemore Vertical Challenge, in
oppressive heat. It was horrible. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s the
second time in a row that I stagger through 30C+ weather while baking under the
sun on those fucking rural roads. This is it. I’m never going back. Even the
joy of sitting in the river after the race felt wrong. It reminded me too much
of the joke: “Why do you keep hitting you head on the wall? Answer: Because it feels
so good when I stop!” I love the people there, but enough is enough. One can
only take so much character building.

My training is actually going pretty well. Compared to many
other ultra runners I know, my running volume is a bit on the low side but when
I look at my racing history, I don’t really see a big correlation between
volume and performance in ultras. I mean I do run quite a bit, but let’s just say
I have NO hundred miles weeks on my training log. I suspect that this will
translate into a long, painful recovery after the race, but as long as I get my
belt buckle, I don’t care. I’ve booked two weeks of vacation as soon as I come
back from the race, so who cares?

About three weeks ago, I started sleeping with my head
enclosed to a plastic box connected to an infernal machine that sucks the
oxygen out of the air. As the machine is pretty noisy and it also warms up the
air, it gets a bit clammy in there so I’ve been sleeping in the basement where
it’s nice and cool. The hose that brings the air in the box makes this
continuous “pfhhhhh PFIIIIIIIISSSSHHHHH”, as if I’m on a ventilator, which I
suppose I kind of am. I’m currently sleeping at the equivalent of 9,500 feet.
My skull feels as if it’s filled with cotton balls and I’m grumpy as hell but I’m
feeling better every day AND my running is great. Who cares if I lose my
friends, wife and job, as long as my running is great, hey?

I decided to go for the altitude tent because I don’t want
to have any excuses, should my resolve waiver during the race. I can’t afford
to think: “the altitude is killing me, I’ll just come back next year and I’ll
get an altitude tent”. No. This is it, this is the year where I throw
everything I have at this race. I am not going back.

This weekend is my last big weekend of running, which means
that I’m starting my taper on Monday. I love tapers. My running is really strong
right now. My legs feel great. My mind is a bit slow, what with the oxygen
deprivation, but when I run I feel like I’m in a really good place. For a long,
long time, I’ve been battling some kind of running boredom where I just
want the run to be over almost as soon as it starts. Touch some wood, but
things have improved quite a bit lately and I’m actually enjoying my runs, even
if it’s on that goddamn bike path.

I got a few toys for the race. First, I got me some hiking
poles. I didn’t think I’d be a big fan of the poles but they are kind of
growing on me. Last week, I went to Sulphur for a couple of loops and I ran the
second loop (20km) with them and I quite enjoyed it. When I lived in Quebec, I
used to cross-country ski quite a bit and I settled into a rhythm similar to
skating (but didn’t really push hard) with both poles swinging pretty much
together as opposed to alternating. I found this oddly relaxing and this makes
me wonder if maybe I won’t keep the poles all the way to the finish after I
pick them up at Twin Lakes, just before Hope Pass. I had planned to dump them
when I got back, but I think I’m going to keep them at least until Half Pipe.
Sure would be nice to have them going up Power Lines, though… Anyway, this is
where I am with the poles.

The second toy is a Garmin Fenix GPS watch. Ever since I
started running ultras, I’ve been bitching against the fact that no GPS watch
could last anywhere close to enough time for a hundred miler. Once your batteries
are a few years old, you sometimes can’t even last long enough for a 50 miler.
Comes two new watches: The Garmin Fenix and the Suunto Ambit2. Both watches
claim a battery life of up to 50 hours. At first, I looked at the Ambit2 but
the $650 (with HR strap) seemed a bit steep. The Garmin Fenix is $400 without
the HR strap, but the two Garmin straps I already have work fine with it.
Garmin is the company that everyone loves to hate but to be fair, my Garmin 305
is a work horse and works really well. I used to have a Garmin GPS for my car.
Some crack addict in need of a fix (probably Rob Ford), broke into my car to
steal it and I replaced it with a Tom Tom. What a piece of shit! To make a long
story short, when I got to Montreal on my first trip with it, I threw the Tom
Tom in the garbage, bought a Garmin Nuvu at The Source and got home safely. I
also had a brush with Suunto. Last year before Leadville, I wanted a good altimeter
watch so I got a Suunto-something, can’t remember the model, not a GPS watch.
Didn’t feel great on my wrist but it looked pretty cool. I tried the timer to
see what happened when it went passed 24 hours and it just friggin’ stopped.
Didn’t roll over, it stopped. I guess I’m not Suunto material, since I can’t
finish most 100 milers under 24 hours. Returned it to MEC. What I’m trying to
say is that despite all the bad things I read about Garmin on the Interweb, it’s
the only company that hasn’t failed me, so I’m going to give the Fenix a fair
shake despite its silly name.

So I have a Fenix. How I justify it is that I’m worried about
missing a turn on the way back. When I ran Burning River, I ran most of the
night alone and I must have stopped 100 times looking for some kind of
markings, wondering if I had zoned out and missed a turn. With my Fenix, I can
fire up the TrakBack function when I get to Winfield. Any time I’m not sure if
I’m on the course, I just look at the map. If I’m on the route, it’s all good,
if not, I go back. The Fenix has a magnetic compass, so when I face a fork, it’s
easier to pick the right one. With my 305, you had to be moving for the watch
to know what direction you were heading so when you stopped to figure things
out, the map tended to move around because the 305 would lose its bearing. Not
so with the Fenix. I’ve un-lost myself many times with the 305 in the past when
running on unknown trails and I expect that the Fenix will be even better. I’m
actually using it as my day to day watch. It runs 6 weeks on a charge in
non-GPS mode, so now I will never forget to bring it with me! It’s a bit big,
but I can just pretend I’m a rich Bay Street banker wearing a ridiculously
expensive Bulova.

That’s about it: Leadville in 3 weeks, I’m pretty much
ready, I have new toys.

3 comments:

Ask Carlos about when to drop the poles. I'd say keep them until Mayqueen on the return so you have them for Powerline (but what do I know?). Whether you've got poles or not, don't take your first left when you hit the road coming back from Treeline, that much I know.